Polynomial formulas for signed pancake stacks requiring five to nine flips

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Let RkB(n)R_k^B(n) denote the number of signed permutations of size nn whose burnt-pancake distance from the sorted stack is kk. Polynomial formulas conjecture. If n≥1n\geq1, then

R5B(n)=16n(n−1)(n−2)(6n2−17n+3),R^B_5(n)=\frac{1}{6}n(n-1)(n-2)(6n^2-17n+3), R6B(n)=160n(n−1)(n−2)(60n3−343n2+401n+284),R^B_6(n)=\frac{1}{60}n(n-1)(n-2)(60n^3-343n^2+401n+284), R7B(n)=1240n(n−1)(n−2)(n−3)(240n3−1499n2+925n+5104),R^B_7(n)=\frac{1}{240}n(n-1)(n-2)(n-3)(240n^3-1499n^2+925n+5104), R8B(n)=15040n(n−1)(n−2)(n−3)(5040n4−52123n3+113415n2+314716n−1027242),R^B_8(n)=\frac{1}{5040}n(n-1)(n-2)(n-3)(5040n^4-52123n^3+113415n^2+314716n-1027242),

and

R9B(n)=140320(n−1)(n−2)(n−3)(n−4)(40320n5−444061n4+644746n3+6638777n2−18991470n).R^B_9(n)=\frac{1}{40320}(n-1)(n-2)(n-3)(n-4)(40320n^5-444061n^4+644746n^3+6638777n^2-18991470n).

These formulas were obtained by polynomial fitting and also explain the zero entries in the cited data table; the source provides no proof or resolution, so the conjecture remains open.

References

Primary source

Saúl A. Blanco, Charles Buehrle and Akshay Patidar, “On the number of pancake stacks requiring four flips to be sorted”, arXiv:1902.04055 (2019).

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